April 15, 2022       /       Unchained Daily       /       Laura Shin

Daily Bits ✍️✍️✍️

  • Rarible is adding support for Solana NFTs.

  • Cosmos’ Hub Theta upgrade went live yesterday.

  • Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter for $43 billion on Thursday.

  • 1inch is now available on Fantom.

  • Bybit overtook CME as the second-largest BTC futures exchange by open interest.

Today in Crypto Adoption…

  • A bill allowing state-chartered banks in Virginia to custody digital assets was approved by Governor Glen Youngkin this week.

  • Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says the company may sell NFTs in the future – even though the digital giant is not close to accepting crypto as payment.

  • MGM Grand Resorts is selling NFT tickets to shows in Las Vegas.

  • Texas and Alabama regulators served cease and desist orders to a casino NFT scheme.

The $$$ Corner…

  • Terraform Labs gifted $880 million worth of LUNA (or 2.3% of LUNA’s market cap) to Luna Foundation Guard to help continue building a backstop for Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin UST.

  • Ava Labs is looking to raise $350 million at a valuation of $5 billion.

  • Ethereum Push Notification Service announced a $10.1 million Series A.

What Do You Meme?

What’s Poppin’?

The FBI Thinks the Ronin Hacker Has Ties to North Korea

 

The US Treasury Department is alleging that Lazarus, a North Korean hacking group, is tied to the $625 million hack of the Ronin bridge from earlier this month.

As of writing time, the address, which is now sanctioned by OFAC, holds over 147,000 ETH worth roughly $450 million.

This wallet balance is down from the original 173,600 ETH that the exploiter was able to drain from Ronin. The missing funds, according to Elliptic, can be traced through two laundering mechanisms. First, the attacker was able to launder $16.7 million of ETH via three centralized exchanges early on before the attacker was cut off by the exchanges enforcing AML obligations. Secondly, the attacker was able to send tokens, like this batch of 3,302.6 ETH, to the Ethereum mixing service Tornado Cash, according to data from Etherscan. So far, Elliptic estimates that over $80 million has been sent through Tornado Cash, with an additional $9.7 million that looks primed to be sent through the mixer soon.

On Twitter, on-chain analytics firm Chainalysis weighed in, saying that the latest news offers insight into how the crypto industry can improve. “The attribution of the Ronin hack to Lazarus Group underlines two industry needs Chainalysis has highlighted previously: Understanding of how DPRK-affiliated [North Korean] threat actors exploit crypto, and better security for DeFi protocols.”

On Ronin’s side, the team published a blog post updating the community about the FBI’s attribution of the hack to North Korea. They also revealed that the Ronin bridge is expected to be deployed by the end of April, once the team is able to add an extra layer of security measures.

Recommended Reads

  1. Coin Center on an unconstitutional SEC proposal:

  1. Messari on Thorchain in Q1:

  1. Tarun Chitra on the implied value of a retroactive airdrop:

On The Pod…

Excited About Your Bored Ape or CryptoPunk? Make Sure You Understand Your IP Rights

 

Stuart Levi, co-head of the Technology Transaction and Intellectual Property Group at Skadden Arps, and Marta Belcher, general counsel and Head of Policy at Protocol Labs, break down the legal issues surrounding NFTs specifically in the context of Yuga Labs’ recent purchase of CryptoPunks and Meebits IP rights. Show highlights:

  • the definitions and differences between copyrights, trademarks, and rights of publicity (name, image, likeness)

  • how NFT projects have evolved in the past 12-18 months and what that means for the rights of NFT holders

  • why NBA Top Shot’s licensing model is the best model for famous brands entering the NFT space

  • how the popularity of PFPs and the open-source ethos of crypto has led to confusion regarding the commercial rights of NFT holders

  • what you are getting when you buy an NFT (hint, it’s not copyright)

  • the misconceptions surrounding Yuga Labs’ acquisition of CryptoPunks and Meebits

  • why Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT holders most likely cannot use the Bored Ape Yacht Club brand or logo

  • what issues web3 projects face in getting NFT holders to accept terms and conditions

  • why web3 projects should protect their trademark

  • what a Creative Commons license is, and how it can be used in the NFT space

  • what sort of licenses exist in the NFT space

  • why secondary sales and transfers of NFTs pose such massive problems for copyright and trademark owners

  • how marketplaces are handling terms and conditions

  • what NFT projects can do to help the transfer of copyrights and trademarks

Book Update

My book, The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze, which is all about Ethereum and the 2017 ICO mania, is now available!

You can purchase it here: http://bit.ly/cryptopians